Why Yes, Yes I Did
by feeling-o'-stupidity
Summary: Isabella sits crying in her living room, listening to the message that Phineas had left from the previous day, the day he asked her to the dance. But what would have been the best day of her life quickly turns into the exact opposite. Oneshot


Isabella sat on the floor in her living room. Wires from the wall leading to her lap where her house phone and old style answering machine sat. Mascara streaked down her face. Isabella hit the rewind button again and listened as the tape squealed backwards. Tonight was supposed to be perfect. It had been going perfectly. She heard the tape stop and hit the play button again like she had been doing for the past few hours.

"Oh hey Isabella." Phineas's voice came through the machine. It was greatly distorted by the phone and by the tape but it was unmistakable. Especially to someone who had loved him since she was 3. "I called to.. Well.. I can't really say through the phone.. I.. I guess I'll call back in a little bit." A short pause followed by Isabella frantically answering the phone.

"Phineas? Phineas you still there?" She heard a quick, almost unnoticeable sigh of relief from the other side

"Yea, yea I'm here. Hello." He laughed quickly and nervously

"Hello. Sorry I had some music blasting." Isabella heard herself laugh quickly "So.. Whatcha doin?"

"Well.. umm.." Phineas obviously hadn't planned past dialing the number. Isabella's tears flowed even more freely as she listened to her conversation and Phineas's nervousness. "I called to ask.. If.. you would like to go to the school dance with me?" Isabella smiled slightly in spite of herself as she could picture Phineas scratching the back of his neck nervously.

"As friends." It was obviously meant as a question but it didn't sound that way. Isabella had gotten used to being just friends even if she wasn't happy about it.

"Well.." Phineas sighed, even he who could build a rollercoaster in a day could not find a way to feed around the bush. "No" his voice became blunt "I actually called to see if you would go with me on a date?" It started out as blunt as his 'no' but Phineas's voice, being unable of maintaining that tone, ended the voice with a sprinkling of hope. Isabella listened as the phone on her end hit the ground. "Isabella! Isabella you still there?"

"Phineas! Yea I'm fine I dropped the phone." Isabella heard herself quickly regain her composure. "Did you say 'on a date'?" She could almost _hear_ Phineas smile on the other end and it only made her tears continue to come

"Why yes, yes I did." Isabella paused it, rewound it for a second and hit play again  
>"...yes I did." She paused it again and continued sobbing. She had cried out about as much as her tear ducts had to give. She popped the tape out and held it to her heart. She was going to keep it forever and she knew it. It represented the happiest moment in her life, the moment before the worst moment in her life.<p>

* * *

><p>After the call Isabella had spent the next 5 hours with the former fireside girls. They all went to each other's houses and helped each other pick something out. After getting ready Isabella waited at the top of the stairs for Phineas. She had her hair straight with it dropping down past her shoulders. The fireside girls had helped her choose an elegant blue dress that draped down to her ankles in ruffles. In her ears she wore small hoop earrings she had gotten for her birthday. He had said he would pick her up at 8. It was 8:30. She figured he must have forgotten where she lived. She had only moved across town a month and a half ago, he was probably going up and down the blocks looking for her house. She sat outside on her front porch to make sure she could flag him down when he passed.<p>

At 9:30 Isabella was still on the front porch. It was getting pretty cold outside and she hadn't worn a shawl with her dress. She decided to go in. Phineas knew where she lived, he would have called if he forgot. Around 10 Isabella began to cry. She had withstood rejection. And she had survived being dumped. She had even been stood up before. But Phineas? He had never been anything short of the nicest person in the world and here she was, at home, still waiting for him but quickly giving up hope he would be there. At 10:30 Her mother came in to see Isabella crying and tried to soothe her. She hadn't really known how to console her. Phineas wasn't normally terrible so that wouldn't work. And Isabella had loved him for to long for 'you can do better' to have mattered. Viivan just knew Phineas should pay for standing her daughter up and making her cry

At midnight Isabella went to her bedroom. She threw off her shoes and earrings but didn't bother changing. She crashed face first onto her bed. She had stopped crying. Even Phineas wasn't worth that much for not showing up. She noticed the remote lying nearby and haphazardly hit it to turn the T.V. on. It came on to the news. Isabella never liked the news. It was never anything nice because there were so many bad things that deserved attention. She kept it on for the background noise, however, and listened to the stories trying to forget as much about Phineas as she could.

An elderly man was killed by carbon monoxide in his nursing home room. A new strain of flu is spreading. Wildfires are devastating the mid-west. A man was killed by a drunk driver earlier this evening and we will update you as we get information. 2 local cable companies are merging. A new video game is considered too dangerous. Isabella listened to these, still facedown, as they looped through changing slightly every couple of times. She immediately rolled over, and off the bed however when she heard one name.

"Phineas Flynn. A local inventor, rock star, astronaut, cowboy, and student, is believed to have been the only one killed in the terrible crash on the interstate. The drunk driver who came across the median and into Flynn is in stable but critical condition. Flynn had been pronounced dead on the scene. Now a view from our copper." The screen changed to a view of a tree that appeard to have a blue bracelet around it. As Isabella rubbed the crud out of her eyes she realized it wasn't a bracelet but a car. And not just _a_ car. But Phineas's car. She had quickly pulled out her cell phone and dialed his number.

"This is Phineas. I can't come to the phone right now, leave a message if you want and I'll call you back as soon as I can. I promise." Isabella hung up before the beep and called it again listening to his voice, so positive and sure, and she knew no matter how many times she called he wouldn't call back. Even if he did promise.

* * *

><p>Isabella put the tape back into the answering machine and rewound it part way to find the part she wanted<p>

"Well.. umm.. I called to ask.. If.. you would like to go to the school dance with me?"

"As friends."

"No. I actually called to see if you would go with me on a date?"..."Isabella! Isabella you still there?"

"Phineas! Yea I'm fine I dropped the phone. Did you say 'on a date'?"

"Why yes, yes I did." Isabella rewound it her thoughts fading away into her sadness and her finger moving completely on its own accord

"yes, yes I did" "yes, yes I did" "yes, yes I did" "Did you say on a date?""Why yes, yes I did"


End file.
